Los Angeles: Legendary singer Joni Mitchell has now joined Neil Young in demanding her music be removed from Spotify over Covid misinformation concerns.
“Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives,” the Canadian singer said in a post on her official website, reports bbc.com.
On Monday, Young had said the streaming platform must choose either him, or the podcaster Joe Rogan.
Rogan has been accused of spreading false information about Covid.
In her message on Friday, Mitchell, whose hits include ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, ‘Both Sides Now’ and ‘Coyote’, among many others, said she stands in solidarity with Canadian-American singer Young, and with the “global scientific and medical communities”.
Young and Mitchell have been friends for many years, and both are survivors of polio. They both contracted the disease in the early 1950s, not long before a vaccine became available.
Unlike Young, Mitchell did not specifically the name of Rogan in her post.
However, she did include a link to an open letter signed by a group of scientists and medical professionals, which criticised Spotify for hosting Rogan’s podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’.
The letter accuses Rogan of spreading a range of misleading claims, and provoking distrust in science and medicine.
It calls on Spotify to “take action against the mass-misinformation events which continue to occur on its platform”.
Young, who is behind classic hits such as ‘Harvest Moon’, Helpless’ and ‘Heart of Gold’, amomng others, accused Spotify on Monday of “spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them”.
On Wednesday, Spotify agreed to remove his songs from the platform, and said it hoped he decides to return to the platform soon. It also defended its record in removing misinformation from the service.
“We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic,” it said.
‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ is Spotify’s most popular podcast, with a reported 200 million downloads a month. The streaming platform is said to have paid $100 million for its rights.
In the past, Rogan had said he is “not an anti-vax person”, and that he believes the vaccines are safe and encourages many people to get them.
–IANS